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Todd Alexander
In The Worst House on the Worst Street, Todd chronicles their journey from optimistic home buyers to self-taught, weary home renovators. Beginning with humble rental refreshes, they’ve tackled and transformed collapsing apartments, damp-infested terrace houses, acres of overgrown vineyards and off-the-grid homesteads – with a growing tally of injuries, floods and menacing neighbours thrown in.

But nothing could have prepared them for the very worst a small-town, dilapidated fibro shack on the wrong side of the tracks. Asbestos, mould, rotting timber, vermin, crumbling walls, shoddy repairs, holes in the roof, floors and windows . . . This house has it all. Amid Covid-19, near-bankruptcy and multiple DIY-related hospital visits, Todd and Jeff put their hard-won knowledge to the test. Jeff brings his dogged determination, obsessive quest for perfection and super-human DIY skills, while Todd brings a sense of humour to his roles of Jeff’s labourer, painter, shopper, cleaner and site health and safety manager.

Part inspiration and larger part cautionary tale, Todd Alexander’s The Worst House on the Worst Street will help any home renovator keep laughing along the way. It’s a comedy, a book of how-to (and what-not-to) and a bloody good yarn for anyone who’s survived a renovation or those who don’t even intend to lift a finger.

Miriam Margolyes
Oh Miriam! has been such a constant refrain in my life, said in all kinds of tones – laughs, surprised gasps and orgasmic sighs (I’m hoping for all of those from you as you read on!) – that it had to be the title of this book. And with a cast list that stretches from Churchill to DiCaprio, Dahl to Dietrich, Princess Margaret to Maggie Smith, I’ve so much more to tell you and so much more to say.

My chapters range from ‘How to Stay Married’ to ‘Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down’. Discover how to break the thickest conversational ice; why swearing is actually good for you (though not on the Today programme); the unexpected things I learned at school and what my Spice Girl name would be. Not to mention my Tale of the Unexpected and my very own Vagina Monologue.

Buckle up and join me on another unforgettable adventure, but this time through my heart and head . . .

Linwood Barclay
How would you react in a life-or-death situation? It’s a question everyone asks themselves, but few have to face in real life. English teacher Richard Boyle certainly never thought he would find himself talking down a former student intent on harming others, but when Mark LeDrew shows up at Richard’s school with a bomb strapped to his chest, Richard immediately jumps into action. Thanks to some quick thinking, he averts a major tragedy and is hailed as a hero, but not all the attention focused on him is positive.

Richard’s brief moment in the spotlight puts him in the sights of a deranged blackmailer with a score to settle. The situation rapidly spirals out of control, drawing Richard into a fraught web of salacious accusations and deadly secrets. As he tries to uncover the truth he discovers that there’s something deeply wrong in the town—something that ties together Mark, the blackmailer, and a gang of ruthless drug dealers, and Richard has landed smack in the middle of it. He’s desperate to find a way out, but everyone in his life seems to be hiding something, and trusting the wrong person could cost him everything he loves.

What price will he pay for one good deed?

Darry Fraser
1894, Echuca, Victoria
Tess Hawthorn is a woman on the run from her abusive husband. All she has to do is get on the riverboat Victor and she will be free. But with tensions at an all-time high between unionist shearers and Scabs, Tess isn’t the only person trying to board a boat under the cover of night. When a brawl erupts between the union and non-union men, Tess is mistaken for a fellow Scab and in the chaos pulled aboard the PS Rodney – the same boat heading up the Darling River that her husband was bound for.

The last person Bram Kempster expects to see on board is Tess Hawthorn, the girl he’s loved from afar since they were young. But he can’t afford to get distracted, not when he’s on an urgent trip to Renmark. Tess didn’t want him back then and, if her haughty behaviour is anything to go by, she certainly doesn’t want him now.

But childhood hurts are the least of their problems. The continent is a tinderbox of violence and bloodshed waiting to ignite, and at home the Murray River is rising fast. Can they overcome their past in time to work together and survive?

Scott Blade
Jack Widow lives by simple rules: keep moving, live and let live. But there’s one more rule—don’t cross him, and he won’t cross you. Deep in the Ozarks, the forgotten town of Iron Crossing harbors deadly secrets. Once a thriving railroad hub, now it’s controlled by the Brock family—a ruthless clan who’ll do anything to protect their criminal empire.

When a chance encounter with the Brocks turns violent, Nora Sutton—a young mother—and her daughters become targets. But when Jack Widow steps in to defend them, he starts a war with a family whose grip on the town is ironclad.

Outnumbered, outgunned, and facing impossible odds, Widow is the only one willing to cross the line. He won’t back down. Not ever.

Mark Billingham
This is one case Detective Miller won’t want to open . . .
The second rip-roaring mystery from multi-award-winning number international bestseller Mark Billingham starring Detective Miller: unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated.

Unconventional Detective Declan Miller has a problem. Well, two problems. First, there’s his dead wife and her yet-to-be-solved murder. He really should stop talking to her ghosts…

Second, and most pressing, a young man has just appeared on his doorstep with a briefcase . . . containing a pair of severed hands. Miller knows this case is proof of a contract killing commissioned by local ne’er do well Wayne Cutler—a man he suspects might also be responsible for his wife’s death. Now Miller has leverage, but unfortunately, he also has something that both Cutler and a villainous fast-food kingpin are desperate to get hold of.

Sprinkle in a Midsomer Murders-obsessed hitman, a psychotic welder, and a woman driven over the edge by a wayward Crème Egg, and Miller is in a mess that even he might not be able to dance his way out of.

Tania Blanchard
1907, London. As the winds of change sweep across the world in the new century, Hannah Rainforth and her friends take to the streets to fight for the vote for women. Now is not the time for quiet argument – the country will only listen when it’s forced to, and the women join the suffragette movement, putting their bodies, reputations and personal safety on the line to achieve lasting change for women.

But dark clouds of war and sinister forces are gathering on the horizon and Hannah is desperate to protect those she loves the most. Faced with the loss of her home, her livelihood and even her family, Hannah risks everything to ensure their survival – and to achieve the vote for women, which is now a matter of national urgency.

As the country is plunged into war and deadly bombs are devastating the city and the north, Hannah and women across the nation join the home war effort to galvanise the nation – their worth cannot be challenged now and their fight for recognition will transform the future forever.

Louise Penny
Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

That’s only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny’s #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading “this might interest you”, a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list—and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.

Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.

James Patterson
A serial killer is taking out America’s finest legal minds, and Alex Cross is called to investigate their brutal murders. But during a dangerous mission to track down the killer, his wife, Bree, and best friend, John Sampson, go missing. To save the people he loves most, Cross has only three goals:

Number one: Find Bree and John.
Number two: Escape.
Number three: Survive.

If he fails, there will be no one left in the House of Cross.